Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA08013 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 12 Jun 2000 01:37:37 +0100 Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 17:34:30 -0700 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Criticisms of Blackmore's approach To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <39443016.C6277556@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en]C-PBI-NC404 (Win95; I) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: ja,en References: <4.3.1.0.20000609101720.00c29290@pop3.htcomp.net> <B0003972722@htcompmail.htcomp.net> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Mark,
> The neural meme is the genotype, behavior, including mental concepts,
> represent the phenotype.
OC, one may say the contrary. ;-) Behavior is the genotype. It is
what is copied, after all. Neural elaboration and mental
interpretation of the behavior are phenotype, differing from
person to person. Good examples are old saws that continue to be
replicated, although their meaning has changed. The meaning is
phenotype, and is realized through neural elaboration on the
saying.
For instance, "Feed a cold and starve a fever," despite its lack
of utility, is still alive. Most people interpret it to mean that
one should eat well when they have a cold, but eat little if they
have a fever (cold or not). The original meaning depended on the
use of "and" to indicate a consequence, as in "Marry in haste and
repent at leisure." It meant that if you had a cold you could
ward off or shorten the length of a fever if you ate well, even
if you didn't feel like eating.
Best,
Bill
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